Virgil Thomson News

The Dessoff Choirs begins its 94th season with Requiem for Whitman: a one night only concert inspired by the American poet and journalist Walt Whitman (1819-1892). As part of a season-long celebration of Whitman's bicentennial, Dessoff's 60 singers will perform exquisite choral settings of Whitman's poetry by Bach, Schuman, Pizzetti, as well as the world premiere of a newly commissioned Whitman-inspired work by contemporary composer Douglas Geers.

Encompass New Opera Theatre will present the World Premiere of Anna Christie with music by Edward Thomas, set to a libretto by Joseph Masteroff, with 12 performances beginning on Thursday, October 4, 2018 at 8pm and running through Sunday, October 21, 2018, at the Baruch Performing Arts Center (at 55 Lexington Avenue, entrance on 25th Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues) in Manhattan.

Recent Grammy Award-winners Third Coast Percussion return to Liquid Music with new works by two incredible musical minds: the iconic American composer Philip Glass and the pop polymath Devonte Hynes, a.k.a. Blood Orange. Glass's new work, written for Third Coast Percussion and co-commissioned by Liquid Music, is his first ever for percussion ensemble. Hynes, who has also become a Glass collaborator in recent years, brings his "dense modern pop with roots in hip-hop, R&B and NYC culture" (The Guardian) to an entirely new sound world in his piece for Third Coast Percussion. More concert details to be announced in October.

Encompass New Opera Theatre will present the world premiere of Anna Christie with music by Edward Thomas set to a libretto by Joseph Masteroff, beginning on Thursday, October 4, 2018 at 8pm, running through Sunday, October 21, 2018, at the Baruch Performing Arts Center (at 55 Lexington Avenue, entrance on 25th Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues). 

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts opens its 30th Anniversary 2018-19 Season and launches its new Chamber Opera Commissioning Initiative with the New York Premiere of PROVING UP, adapted from the short story "Proving Up" by Karen Russell.

The Orchestra Now (TON), the visionary orchestra and master's degree program founded in 2015 by Bard College president and conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein, will open its fourth season on September 15, 2018. Five individual series and two special events will present 17 different programs offering innovative combinations of familiar and lesser-known repertoire through May 19, 2019. To date, the young members of TON have performed close to 100 concerts for more than 35,000 New Yorkers.

Morris Choral Society to feature distinguished soloist's Baritone Jonathan Scott, Mezzo Soprano Maya Hoover and organist Michael Shane Wittenburg in Gabriel Faure's Requiem in d minor May 12th.

Hailed as "one of the great amateur choruses of our time (New York Today) for its "full-bodied sound and suppleness (The New York Times)," The Dessoff Choirs culminates its 93rd season with a "Freedom Concert" inspired by the late Coretta Scott King (b. April 27, 1927), wife of Martin Luther King Jr., and advocate for African-American equality.

Producers Darlene Kaplan, Laura Janik Cronin and Scott Newsome, in association with Alec Seymour, present the Off-Broadway premiere of The Stone Witch, a play by Shem Bitterman (A Death in Colombia, Influence).  Performances begin Monday, March 12, 2018 for an open-ended engagement atThe Westside Theatre - Upstairs (407 West 43rd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues).  Opening Night is Sunday evening, March 25, 2018 at 6:30PM.

The little OPERA theatre of ny (LOTNY), in collaboration with New York based period ensemble New Vintage Baroque,presents the New York City Premiere of Piramo e Tisbe at Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue, NYC, from March 22-25, 2018, with performances on Thursday through Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are $35 and are available at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/35006. Based upon the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from Ovid's Metamorphoses with a libretto by Marco Coltellini, Piramo e Tisbe is byJohann Adolph Hasse, a pivotal opera composer of the 18th Century celebrated for his sweet and tender melodies. Sung in Italian with English supertitles.

The Orchestra Now (T?N) will feature a prolific spring season offering no less than five concerts in New York City beginning on March 16, when associate conductor James Bagwell leads a FREE concert of works by Bizet, Part, and Virgil Thomson at The Great Hall at Cooper Union, part of the Orchestra's ever popular and family-friendly Around Town series. The concert will be repeated at Hudson Hall in Hudson, NY on March 18.

Music inspired by transformations - life and loss, vice and virtue, and past and future - will resound throughout Copland House's 9th spring season of acclaimed concerts at Westchester County's magnificent Merestead estate in Mount Kisco, NY.

On Tuesday, February 27 at 8:00 p.m., the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra makes its Carnegie Hall debut in a performance led by Music Director and Conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. The exciting program-part of a season-long celebration of the music of composer Philip Glass-features works inspired by a variety of Latin American locations, including Glass' Days and Nights in Rocinha-the composer's colorfully scored, evocative tribute to a Rio de Janeiro favela, known for its samba school, and La noche de los Mayas-a suite drawn from a now-lost 1939 film score by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. The evening will conclude with Glass' Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra, a virtuosic showcase for the evening's two soloists-Jim Atwood and Paul Yancich--who play nine timpani between them.

The little OPERA theatre of ny (LOTNY), in collaboration with New York based period ensemble New Vintage Baroque, presents the New York City Premiere of Piramo e Tisbe at Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue, NYC, from March 22-25, 2018, with performances on Thursday through Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 3pm.  Tickets are $35 and are available at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/35006.   Based upon the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from Ovid's Metamorphoses with a libretto by Marco Coltellini, Piramo e Tisbe is byJohann Adolph Hasse, a pivotal opera composer of the 18th Century celebrated for his sweet and tender melodies. Sung in Italian with English supertitles.

WWFM The Classical Network, located on Mercer County Community College's West Windsor Campus, will present "Deep River: The Art of the Spiritual," featuring the Washington-based PostClassical Ensemble and bass-baritone Keven Deas in concert Friday Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. at Princeton Theological Seminary's Miller Chapel.

Now entering its fourth year, the Uncharted Concert Series atGreenwich House Music School has emerged as one of New York's most exciting and unpredictable live concert series, drawing attention from tastemakers and curators from across the city

Hailed as “one of the great amateur choruses of our time (New York Today) for its “full-bodied sound and suppleness (The New York Times),” The Dessoff Choirs continues its 93rd season with a one-night only concert, March 11, 2018, at downtown's Basilica of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral. Program includes The Little Match Girl Passion, the allegorical choral reenactment of the Passion by composer David Lang (b.1957), Bach's (1685-1750) Komm Jesu, komm, and the complete Chichester Psalms by Bernstein.

Producers Darlene Kaplan, Laura Janik Cronin and Scott J. Newsome, have announced, today, the cast and creative team for the Off-Broadway premiere of The Stone Witch, a play by Shem Bitterman (A Death in Colombia, Influence). Performances begin Monday, March 12, 2018 for an open-ended engagement at The Westside Theatre - Upstairs (407 West 43rd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues). Opening Night is set for Sunday evening, March 25, 2018 at 6:30PM.

The Manhattan Association of Cabarets (MAC) will present Tony nominee SHARON McNIGHT and RUBY RIMS with its 2018 Lifetime Achievement Awards at the 32nd Annual MAC Awards to be held Tuesday, March 27 at 7:00 pm at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in New York City.

The little OPERA theatre of ny(LOTNY), in collaboration with New York based period ensemble New Vintage Baroque,presents the New York City Premiere of Piramo e Tisbe at Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue, NYC, from March 22-25, 2018, with performances on Thursday through Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are $35 and are available at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/35006.